Trump blasts ‘haters & losers’ three hours before North Korea summit
Just hours before his historic summit with North Korea’s leader, President Trump on Monday ripped the “haters & losers” who have expressed skepticism about his successes.
“The fact that I am having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters & losers. We have our hostages, testing, research and all missle (sic) launches have stoped (sic), and these pundits, who have called me wrong from the beginning, have nothing else they can say! We will be fine!” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s tweet came roughly three hours before he was scheduled to meet with Kim Jong Un as part of the first ever summit between a sitting U.S. president and North Korean leader.
In a separate tweet, the president played up the importance of his one-on-one meeting with Kim following hours of meetings between diplomats from each country.
“Meetings between staffs and representatives are going well and quickly….but in the end, that doesn’t matter,” Trump tweeted. “We will all know soon whether or not a real deal, unlike those of the past, can happen!”
The two men will meet at a luxury hotel in Singapore at 9 a.m. local time, which is 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Trump and Kim will initially meet face-to-face with only interpreters present.
The White House said the two leaders will then hold an expanded meeting with their advisers as well as a working lunch.
The two leaders spent the day before their meeting in markedly different ways.
Trump met with Singaporian Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, where he predicted the meeting with Kim would “work out very nicely.”
Kim, meanwhile, spent Monday night touring Singapore and posing for photos with local officials.
The typically reclusive strongman reportedly stopped at tourist sites and walked through the city with his security detail in tow. He also posed for a selfie with Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, who posted the photo on Twitter.
Trump will leave Singapore on Tuesday night after the summit. The president previously indicated he could stay up to a few days for the event, but his departure time was reportedly moved up after Kim Jong Un planned to leave Singapore following the meeting.
The meeting follows a political storm in North America over Trump’s broadsides against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G-7 summit that concluded on Saturday.
Trump and his aides have savaged Trudeau over his public remarks at a press conference, arguing he betrayed Trump with criticism ahead of the North Korean meeting.